page_title: Dümmer
section_title: Character
hierarchical_section_title: Dümmer / Character
caption_attribution_description: English: View on the Dümmer Lake.
context_page_description: The Dümmer or officially Dümmer See is a large lake in southern Lower Saxony. It has a surface of 13.5 km² and an average depth of one metre. Its elevation is 37 metres.
  Dümmer is a popular resort for water sports, but also an important biotope for water birds and located in a zone especially frequented by migratory birds. A large section of its shore is protected by nature reserve areas.
context_section_description: The Dümmer is, after the Steinhuder Meer, the second largest lake in Lower Saxony. With its water surface of 13.5 km ² - the area within the ring dyke including siltation zones is 16 km ² - and maximum water depth of just 1.50 m, it is good for swimming and water sports. The shallow lake with its flat beaches on the western and eastern shore is up to 5 km long from north to south and up to 3.4 km wide from west to east.
  The lake is crossed by the River Hunte, which leaves the lake via several branches, the largest of which is not called the "Hunte" but the Lohne. Other branches are the Grawiede and the artificial Wätering, the Dorflohne, Schoddenlohne and Ompteda Canal. Only 13 km north of the lake and 3 km north of Diepholz all the branches of the Hunte are reunited.
  The fish-filled lake, which is also a breeding and resting place for birds, has a variety of flora and fauna, which is why the western and the southern shore of the lake are largely protected. 
  Although the lake is only about a metre deep on average, very rich water sources and the Hunte itself ensure that its water level is relatively constant. Previously these headstreams combined with regular heavy rainfall to cause flooding, so that in the 1940s work began to build dykes around the lake. In the period 1941-1945 foreign forced labour was used for this on a large scale. The reclamation and subsequent lack of annual flooding resulted in algae growing in large quantities in the lake and hence depriving most other organisms of oxygen. The low water level was caused by heavy silting, also a result of dyking the lake. With the help of several locks it was possible to control the high water levels artificially without greatly interfering with nature. Nevertheless, the Dümmer suffers from heavy nutrient pollution caused by intensive agriculture.
  The remains of New Stone Age settlements have been found on the shores of the Dümmer.
caption: Dümmer Lake
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